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 Mr Morden wrote:
ohh interested in who is the "blade of the Blood Queen"

It's not a person, its a page of story/description. Check the pictures: http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Grand-Alliance-Death

You'd think if they were going to drop half the alliance, plus the old special characters, and give us nothing new at all, that they could at least include a good 3 or 4 new formations, instead of only one.

Tomb kings had some neat stuff that I might have bought some day. Their loss, though maybe they will go to specialist games.

I doubt they would move them into specialist games. It doesn't make any sense to have a fantasy game with a load of model kits branded AoS and a load of model kits for fantasy games, without branding.

One might have hoped the Finecast parts of the line would be retooled as plastic kits, but if GW were planning to do that, presumably the TKs would have been included in the Death book.

Seriously, look at that table of contents. FFS.

One sub-faction is just Necromancers and Mortis Engines. Another one has 3 types of model. How hard would it be to say "the death realm has a sandy bit" and have the modern TK kits - Sphinx, Snake Surfers and Tomb Guard - be their own sub-faction?

Oh man if Brets are really next I had better pick up a Battalion Box now.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Seriously, look at that table of contents. FFS.

One sub-faction is just Necromancers and Mortis Engines. Another one has 3 types of model. How hard would it be to say "the death realm has a sandy bit" and have the modern TK kits - Sphinx, Snake Surfers and Tomb Guard - be their own sub-faction?

Y'know, I kind of wonder if we see a resurgent Tomb King faction if they'll be somewhere else.

Tomb Kings have always had more sentience to them than anything barring the Wight Kings. They've also traditionally been associated less with Necromancy and more with heavenly magic.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Seriously, look at that table of contents. FFS.

One sub-faction is just Necromancers and Mortis Engines. Another one has 3 types of model. How hard would it be to say "the death realm has a sandy bit" and have the modern TK kits - Sphinx, Snake Surfers and Tomb Guard - be their own sub-faction?

They want to reduce the fantasy range. So far all they've done is add. I think there will be a fair bit of culling still to do.

While I certainly understand the culling GW is going through with some ranges, I think it would have been worth saving some of the kits from the TK range- particularly the Necrosphinx, tombguard, Necropolis knights- basically the better-looking plastics. They could have saved the concept whilst still removing vast chunks of models they don't have any interest in...sort of what I see possibly happening with beastmen.

Yeah, the better looking kits could have mad a nice sub faction like the Fyreslayers.

To be honest, I am so surprised at some of the Chaos kits that survived if we are now to see a big cull across the ranges.

It's sad to see TK going, they were really quite cool in my view. Yes some of the skeletons were a bit outdated, but I think what killed them in the last edition was how vulnerable they were made. I think better rules and providing updated models (and completing the range) for those dated designs at a reasonable cost would have done a lot to keep people interested in them. Unfortunately they have now been consigned to the archives.

Unfortunately if AoS is doing poorly then mass purging of ranges is more likely. They take up stock space for limited return. I wouldn't be surprised if GW is doing this to stop spending on the old models and rather buy the more expensive new ones to ensure they achieve their sales targets of these models. Obviously this only works if people weren't buying to complete 8th or 9th armies...otherwise they just risk alienating even more purchasers (the same mistake they made with specialist games). I am however shocked that they are culling the new plastic kits as well in the range. This doesn't bode well for any other armies. Bretonnians are an expected cull, but we are missing sightings of many armies that have not been converted to the round base style. I now wonder just how much of the Ogres, Empire, high Elf ranges are going to survive.

What is even more intriguing is the release of the new undead faction book, it would imply that there is unlikely to be any new undead now for some time. The small size of the book makes me wonder whether it has been toned back to what it originally was going to be?

People mention Bretonnia all the time, but I think there's reason to be worried about other stuff, like the Empire, going away, too. Much like Bretonnia, the Empire is locked into a mostly historical based medieval design aesthetic that does not seem to mesh too well with the directions Sigmar has been going in. I guess we'll see, but it could be mighty interesting whenever they get to that Order tome...

This totally ruined my no-purchase wow. Bought a necrosphinx and a box of chariots. Sadly the tomb guards were already sold out...

Bretonnia is a given- it's already been announced by a GW FB page in Brussels. As far as future plans go, I think you make an excellent point totalfailure. The empire will be purged significantly- of all of its renaissance stuff (most of the range right there) will go.

It's sad to see so much disappear from the illusions GW's management concocts for itself.

No thanks to all your doom and gloom I found myself purchasing a box of Tomb Guard the other day. Why? I have no real undead collection and all I wanted was to try building a Tau suit since I never got to when I was younger.

Then I started eyeing a Necrosphinx that I will most likely end up with before the end of the month.

You lot are a bad influence!

They had a chariot box for 20 bucks that I probably should have bought if only to help it find a better home than in the shop's consignment case.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
No thanks to all your doom and gloom I found myself purchasing a box of Tomb Guard the other day. Why? I have no real undead collection and all I wanted was to try building a Tau suit since I never got to when I was younger.

Then I started eyeing a Necrosphinx that I will most likely end up with before the end of the month.

You lot are a bad influence!

They had a chariot box for 20 bucks that I probably should have bought if only to help it find a better home than in the shop's consignment case.

I feel bad for you but I think that a lot of the races need a new direction. The Empire for instance needs a whole redesign including the name. I never did like them....

Unlike the Tomb King plastics I really won't be too sad to see a lot of the Empire kits go, their state troops are simply lacking in quality and several other kits are really showing their age (knights, steam tank). I would never build an empire army out of empire models when there is such a wealth of historical options to kit bash with. There are some kits I will miss but IMO it's mostly stuff people will already have if they want; war machines, character models, etc.

Brettonians shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, in fact I'm surprised it took this long for them to be dropped entirely.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Unlike the Tomb King plastics I really won't be too sad to see a lot of the Empire kits go, their state troops are simply lacking in quality and several other kits are really showing their age (knights, steam tank). I would never build an empire army out of empire models when there is such a wealth of historical options to kit bash with. There are some kits I will miss but IMO it's mostly stuff people will already have if they want; war machines, character models, etc.

Brettonians shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, in fact I'm surprised it took this long for them to be dropped entirely.

The Steam Tank is relatively new, it was released the same time as the Greatswords.

You guys are killing me. The Empire range is beautiful and I hope they become the "Empire of Azyrheim" or whatever and transfer the whole range over like they did with Seraphon.

Considering they are the good guys for Total War, I hope GW will consider keeping a lot of the kits.

Can they really get rid of a model as iconic as the Steamtank!? Looking at the Fyreslayers, maybe we'll get a whole faction called Stymtynks! ;-)

Sad to say, I'd put good money on all of that stuff passing Bottle. They're too renaissance, too obviously taken with outside inspiration. GW can't let that be the case...for reasons.

 ImAGeek wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Unlike the Tomb King plastics I really won't be too sad to see a lot of the Empire kits go, their state troops are simply lacking in quality and several other kits are really showing their age (knights, steam tank). I would never build an empire army out of empire models when there is such a wealth of historical options to kit bash with. There are some kits I will miss but IMO it's mostly stuff people will already have if they want; war machines, character models, etc.

Brettonians shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, in fact I'm surprised it took this long for them to be dropped entirely.

The Steam Tank is relatively new, it was released the same time as the Greatswords.

Wasn't that with the 7th edition book nine years ago? Though the Brets make anything seem new I suppose.

 Accolade wrote:
Sad to say, I'd put good money on all of that stuff passing Bottle. They're too renaissance, too obviously taken with outside inspiration. GW can't let that be the case...for reasons.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't put money on most of the range staying, I just take offence at the models being called ugly. :-p

As much as GW like to pretend there are no people in Age of Sigmar, they will have to release a human faction sooner or later, and it seems reasonable to use some of the existing kits rather than start from scratch. Things like Demigryph Knights and Warrior Preists perhaps.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Unlike the Tomb King plastics I really won't be too sad to see a lot of the Empire kits go, their state troops are simply lacking in quality and several other kits are really showing their age (knights, steam tank). I would never build an empire army out of empire models when there is such a wealth of historical options to kit bash with. There are some kits I will miss but IMO it's mostly stuff people will already have if they want; war machines, character models, etc.

Brettonians shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, in fact I'm surprised it took this long for them to be dropped entirely.

The Steam Tank is relatively new, it was released the same time as the Greatswords.

Wasn't that with the 7th edition book nine years ago? Though the Brets make anything seem new I suppose.

Nah, it was a release without a book, also had the archers. Can't remember what year it was. Maybe 5 years or so.

Okay, think it was longer than I thought (8 years maybe) but I think it's fine, and the Greatswords are an awesome kit too imo which were released at the same time.

 Bottle wrote:

 Accolade wrote:
Sad to say, I'd put good money on all of that stuff passing Bottle. They're too renaissance, too obviously taken with outside inspiration. GW can't let that be the case...for reasons.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't put money on most of the range staying, I just take offence at the models being called ugly. :-p

As much as GW like to pretend there are no people in Age of Sigmar, they will have to release a human faction sooner or later, and it seems reasonable to use some of the existing kits rather than start from scratch. Things like Demigryph Knights and Warrior Preists perhaps.

Gotcha. I prefer the renaissance aspect of the range myself, although I felt like the core troops had a bit of a monkey look to them in their exaggerated proportions.

I think that anything with a religious overtone (the flagellants and rolling altar) will survive, but any of the stuff that is too knighty will go away (including the demigryphs), as GW probably seems them as being too much in conflict with their even more awesome knights, the Stormcasts.

From there, I think future human releases will fixate on support for the Stormcasts in the form of cannon fodder/engines of war units.

Sword Of Caliban wrote:The Empire for instance needs a whole redesign including the name. I never did like them....

Oh, well, that makes it alright then.

Actually, now you mention it, and given certain comparisons when AoS turned up, I can see an Azyrheim empire range not wholly incompatible with Mantic basileans.

But on the other hand...

Bottle wrote:
As much as GW like to pretend there are no people in Age of Sigmar, they will have to release a human faction sooner or later

... who needs boring hew-mawns when you've got ded kewl wikkid super-badass fantasy space marines and spiky cannibals and nekkid dwarfs?

God I hope the empire range doesnt go, I need those heads

I'm not really surprised that TK are getting "removed". GW has mentioned that old armies will be usable (with the warscrolls they initially released) but if I remember correctly old stuff won't be supported with new releases. Wasn't the whole point of AoS to make it more streamlined (release wise) and to consolidate armies? All the other old armies will probably get removed too when enough new stuff gets released for them. Until then some re-boxing will happen so they can sell something.

A few kits will still be usable (like Nagash from End Times) but new armies will actually be new — top to bottom. The new and bigger chaos knights (don't know the name) will replace the old ones. Sure you can use the old ones with the corresponding warscroll but there won't be new models for them and no new warscrolls so they are technically not replaced but just pushed aside. Am I remembering all of rumours wrong? I though that was GW's plan: to release new armies for AoS (and have smaller armies and fewer factions) but to not officially remove all the old armies (they kept supporting them with the most basic and generic warscrolls so they appear to be valid in the game and you can't complain on that technicality even if further support won't happen).

So whatever the new elven/human aesthetic, models, and units will be they won't be that compatible to the old armies but fit into the new army list and as soon as they manage to put together an useful army list for the faction the old stuff (except the few models that will fit in the new army) will be dropped when they have the replacement. Just like the new big chaos knights are technically not a replacement for the old model (they even have different rules) but will be the only thing that looks and works like a chaos knight that you can buy once the transition is over.

Mario wrote:
Just like the new big chaos knights are technically not a replacement for the old model (they even have different rules) but will be the only thing that looks and works like a chaos knight that you can buy once the transition is over.

That transition would be a long ways out, considering the Chaos Knights just got reboxed and are included in the Start Collecting set and the Lord Heldrath set.

Someone on /tg/ said Brets, Empire, Wood Elves, Ogres, and Goblins are all up next on the chopping block. Obviously not a great source, but it seems anything thats not on a round base yet is fair game. I'm expecting Brets to go. Ogres and at least the spider Gobbos seem safe, but who really knows at this point?

gobskrag 'eadbasha wrote:
Someone on /tg/ said Brets, Empire, Wood Elves, Ogres, and Goblins are all up next on the chopping block. Obviously not a great source, but it seems anything thats not on a round base yet is fair game. I'm expecting Brets to go. Ogres and at least the spider Gobbos seem safe, but who really knows at this point?

So they took two armies rumored to be on the chopping block and added in more.

Man, Naftka has some competition!